Colorado town cuts ‘harsh’ pot penalty
By admin at 13 January, 2009, 11:25 am
Saying that the old law was “too harsh,” a Colorado town has voted to reduce the fine for marijuana possession of less than an ounce and removed the possibility of jail time.
According to the Denver Post, Federal Heights, Colorado voted last week to reduce the penalty for possession from $1,000 to $500 in a move that it says brings the town closer in line with state law.
“If the council was looking at methamphetamines causing problems, obviously they wouldn’t change anything,” Mason Tvert, head of Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation told the Denver Post. “This city has recognized marijuana is not the devil, not the horrible drug that’s been talked about for 70 years.”
But city officials pointed out they had no plans to repeal marijuana laws.
The only dissenting vote on the city council came from Tanya Ishikawa who argued that even the $500 penalty was too high and looked to have it reduced to $100.
In November, Massachusetts citizens voted to change the state’s law to decriminalize the possession of less than an ounce of marijuana. The new law, which took effect this month now carries a $100 fine and no jail time.
Just leagalize it already, all this time wasted on fines and debates about how much is too much, if california can do it the state with the most harsh and dumb laws why cant the rest of the US just go with it?